


Mistaken Identity

by Lex_Munro



Series: Stories From the Fateverse [9]
Category: Avengers (Comic), Captain America (2011), Iron Man (Movies), Thor (2011)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Movie Fusion, Alternate Universe - Sci-fi, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Dimension-Hopping, Humor, M/M, Mild Language, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-23
Updated: 2011-06-23
Packaged: 2017-10-22 16:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/240180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lex_Munro/pseuds/Lex_Munro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another stop on the Cartographer's trip to fix all the movieverse timelines' Bifrost bridges.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mistaken Identity

**Author's Note:**

> set immediately after [Building Bridges](http://archiveofourown.org/works/240179).
> 
> some more Cartographer, and some Tony, because he's hilarious.
> 
>  **warnings:**   AU - Fateverse.  minor spoilers for the Thor movie.  sci-fi with technobabble.  language: pg (for hell).
> 
>  **pairing:**   a little Tony/Steve.
> 
>  **timeline:**   probably the second or third movieverse timeline Steven's had to drop in and fix.  stupid broken Bifrost...
> 
>  **disclaimer:**   marvel owns all the characters, i just made more alternate universe versions of them.
> 
>  **notes:**   1) lol.  RDJ!Tony is such a smartass.  2) ...and incorrigible.
> 
> visit [The Fateverse Glossary](http://merianmoriarty.deviantart.com/art/Fateverse-Glossary-174203180) for terms, concepts, Nodes, and important people.

**Mistaken Identity**

 

The Cartographer is a patient man by nature.  This is, quite possibly, the only thing saving the man currently ignoring him.

Because there are few things more trying than being ignored by Tony Stark, and one of those is being ignored by him when you’ve told him that what you’re saying is important and he claims he’s paying attention.

“Tony, you’re still not listening,” Steven says over the sound of _very loud_ music.

“Of course I am, sweetheart,” is the automatic reply.

“If you were listening, you’d realize you’re not talking to your boyfriend.”

“Steve, I think you’re working too hard.  Maybe cut back on the heroing hours, let Carol cover a shift.  Run along, honeybear, Papa’s got work to do.”

Steven doesn’t mind being talked down to (not as much as most people, certainly), and he likes AC/DC, even when it’s being blasted at a rude volume, but there’s really only so much a man can take.  He doesn’t break anything—he’s very proud of that.  He just digs out Magellan and tells it to hack the workshop mainframe and _turn that racket off_ so that there’s one less distraction for Tony.

Tony fumbles the wrench in his hand and whips around to _finally_ do more than glance at Steven.  “Steve, you know better than to turn off…my…”

Steven puts his hands on his hips and tries not to scowl.

Tony blinks at him.  “You…aren’t quite Steve.”

“I explained all that,” Steven grunts.  “You _said_ you were paying attention.”

“I mmmmay have ever-so-slightly re-specced the truth.”

“You can’t re-spec the truth, Tony.”

“Sure I can, if you give me a five minutes and a decent computer.”

Steven stops trying not to scowl.

“Yyyeah, not funny, got it.  Um.  See, this is the part where I sit here and put on my most adorable pout to show you how contrite I am and you go back and hit the footnotes of everything you said when I was supposed to be paying attention.”

The pout _is_ adorable.  Steven shakes his head.  “Footnotes, right.  Hi, I’m a different Steve from a different part of the multiverse.  Part of my job is making sure the whole thing doesn’t destabilize and go boom.  To do that, I need you to build a Bifrost gate, a point-to-point transition conduit that uses a certain powerful crystal resonance to enable near-instantaneous travel along certain specific paths.  Now—”

“Tony, _what_ is going on?”

Inconvenient complication after inconvenient complication.

Steven closes his eyes.  In an ideal world, this would have been a five minute speech to Tony and a skip back to this bundle’s Asgard to pick Three up again, just like the last bundle.  Instead, he’s been here eight minutes already.

Sighing, Steven turns and points to his counterpart.  “You were not supposed to be back yet.  I may have to erase your memory.  For now, please be quiet so I can finish what I was saying.”

“Erase my mem—like hell you will!”

“As one Steve to another, this is save-the-world stuff.  _Please_ , let me finish, so we can—”

His counterpart looks over his shoulder and scowls.  “Tony!”

When Steven turns, Tony has on his most innocent expression.

Steven shakes his head again.  “You were staring at my butt, weren’t you?”

Tony blinks.  “That depends on your definitions of ‘staring’ and ‘at.’”  He leans to one side to talk to his boyfriend.  “In my defense, it’s just about identical to yours.  Call it a case of mistaken identity.  It’s actually pretty fascinating, from a technical standp—”

“Tony, stop talking.”

Tony closes his mouth and resumes his ‘adorable pout.’

“As I was saying, I’m going to leave you with instructions on how to make Bifrost out of vibranium, as well as the coordinates to Asgard.  A young woman named Jane Foster will be here in a few days to talk to you about ether-resonance paths.  Use the information I give you and what she knows to build a gate that will allow people to travel to and from Asgard.  You have about eight months to get Thor here and convince him that the Avengers are the good guys, which may not be easy since he’s not too thrilled with SHIELD right now.  Got it?”

Tony nods.

Steven turns back to his counterpart.

“You’re not erasing my memory without a fight, mister,” the man says.

Steven frowns.  “Yeah, I kinda thought you’d say that.  Well, try and forget all that science I just spouted, and don’t tell anybody you saw an alternate version of yourself.”  He holds Magellan up again.  “Magellan, transmit the Bifrost data pack to the workshop mainframe.”

On a monitor somewhere in the background, twenty pages of data flash like a flipbook.

When the Node in his hand beeps, Steven points at Tony.  “Remember:  eight months.  And you need to stop promising you’ll pay attention when you have no intention of doing so.”

“That’s not fair; I had _every_ intention of doing so.  It’s not my fault I got distracted.”

“Hah!” scoffs Steven’s counterpart.

“Well, you weren’t being naked or cuddly or ‘oh my God, it’s an alien invasion.’  How was I supposed to know it was important?”

Steven scowls again.  “I’m _going now_ , before the urge to strangle you becomes too strong to resist.  Magellan, get me back to Asgard.”

 

 **.End.**


End file.
